Opening Passage: From the Middle English, as given in Armitage:
Sithen the sege and the assaut was sesed at Troye,
The borgh brittened and brent to brondes and askes,
The tulk that the trammes of tresoun ther wroght
Was tried for his tricherie, the trewest on erthe.
Hit was Ennias the athel and his highe kynde
That sithen depreced provinces, and patrounes bicome
Welneghe of al the wele in the West Iles:
Fro riche Romulus to Rome ricchis hym swythe,
With gret bobbaunce that burghe he biges upon fyrst,
And nevenes hit his aunes nome, as hit now hat;
Tiius to Tuskan, and teldes bigynnes;
Langaberde in Lumbardie lyftes up homes;
And fer over the French flod Felix Brutus
On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settes
wyth wynne,
Where werre and wrake and wonder
Bi sythes has wont therinne,
And oft bothe blysse and blunder
Ful skete has skyfred synne. (p. 20)
Armitage's translation:
Once the siege and assault of Troy had ceased,
with the city a smoke-heap of cinders and ash,
the traitor who contrived such betrayal there
was tried for his treachery, the truest on earth;
Aeneas, it was, with his noble warriors
who went conquering abroad, laying claim to the crowns
of the wealthiest kingdoms in the western world.
Mighty Romulus quickly careered towards Rome
and conceived a city in magnifient style
which from then until now has been known by his name.
Ticius constructed townships in Tuscany
and Langobard did likewise building homes in Lombardy.
And further afield, over the Sea of France,
Felix Brutus founds Britain on broad banks
most grand.
And wonder, dread and war
have lingered in that land
where loss and love in turn
have held the upper hand. (p. 21)
Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain (in my edition, the lines are broken oddly, I suspect through not having properly taken into account the initial capital, so I have here corrected them):
When the siege and the assault had ceased at Troy
and the fortress fell in flame to firebrands and ashes
the traitor who the contrivance of treason there fashioned
was tried for his treachery, the most true upon earth --
it was Aeneas the noble and his renowned kindred
who then laid under them lands, and lords became
of well-nigh all the wealth in the Western Isles.
When royal Romulus to Rome his road had taken,
in great pomp and pride he peopled it first,
and named it with his own name that yet now it bears;
Tirius went to Tuscany and towns founded,
Langeberde in Lombardy uplifted halls,
and far over the French flood Felix Brutus
on many a broad bank and brae Britain established
full fair,
when strange things, strife and sadness,
at whiles in the land did fare,
and each other grief and gladness
oft fast have followed there. (p. 17)
From Tolkien's translation of Pearl:
Pearl of delight that a prince doth please
To grace in gold enclosed so clear,
I vow that from over orient seas
Never proved I any in price her peer.
So round, so radiant ranged by these,
So fine, so smooth did her sides appear
That ever in judging gems that please
Her only alone I deemed as dear.
Alas! I lost her in garden near:
Through grass to the ground from me it shot;
I pine now opporessed by love-wound dear
For that pearl, mine own, without a spot. (p. 94)
From Tolkien's translation of Sir Orfeo:
We often read and written find,
as learned men do us remind,
that lays that now the harpers sing
are wrought of many a marvellous thing.
Some are of weal, and some of woe,
and some do joy and gladness know;
in some are guile and treachery told,
in some the deeds that chanced of old;
some are of jests and ribaldry,
and some are tales of Faerie.
Of all the things that men may heed
'tis most of love they sing indeed. (p. 128)
Summary: It is the custom in King Arthur's court for great feasts to be recognized by adventure: the king will not eat until some wonderful adventure arises. And when the court is at Camelot on Christmas, the Lord's own feast, a great wonder comes to the court. A Green Knight comes to the court with a challenge. It is common for knights to be designated by colors (Red Knight, Black Knight, and so forth), but in this case the color is not merely heraldic. The knight is green of face, and of hair, and of armor, and of steed. The challenge he brings is a stroke-for-stroke. He has a magnificent axe, which one of the court will use to give him a single stroke, from which the Green Knight will not defend himself, and will receive the axe as a prize. And then one year later, at New Year's, the same person will meet the Green Knight at his Green Chapel, and receive a stroke in return, on the same terms. Everyone is a bit taken aback at this game, but when the Green Knight mocks them, for their hesitation, King Arthur rises to meet the challenge. However, Sir Gawain, the king's nephew, asks to do it in his place, and this is accepted. The Green Knight bares his neck, Sir Gawain cuts off his head in a single stroke. But then the Green Knight grabs his head by the hair, remounts his steed, and reminds them all that Sir Gawain is due to receive a similar blow in turn, come New Year's.
After All Hallows', Sir Gawain sets out to find the Green Chapel, and wanders over a great portion of the kingdom searching for it. By Christmas he comes to an excellent and hospitable castle, whose lord and lady welcome him heartily. After celebrating Christmas, Sir Gawain intends to set off again, with three days to go, but the lord tells him that the Green Chapel is less than half a day away, so he can stay until the day appointed. The lord proposes a game in the meantime. At the end of the day, each will give the other whatever they win during the day. Each morning, the lord goes out hunting, and each day he gives Sir Gawain what he gained from the hunt. The lady seems a bit of a hunter, too, since each day she tries to seduce Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain, of course, is the model of knightly courtesy, and in all the legends is known for his extraordinary politeness and gentleness toward women, so despite not being seduced, he goes along with the lady's games without crossing any actual lines. The lady, however, uses his courtesy against him, and uses this to maneuver Sir Gawain each day into a kiss, although he refuses to go further than that. And, every evening he gives the lord of the castle a kiss, thus giving to the lord what he gained during the day. However, as the day approaches, the lady offers him, along with three kisses, a girdle of green and gold which, she claims, will make him immune to the axe stroke. Sir Gawain takes it, and does not give it to the lord as part of the game, returning only the kisses.
On New Year's, Sir Gawain goes to the Green Chapel, where he meets the Green Knight, ready with his axe. Sir Gawain flinches from the first attempt, which is aborted, for which he is mocked by the Green Knight, but insists on going through with the game. The Green Knight tests his nerve with a fake attempt, and when Sir Gawain angrily tells him to do it, the Green Knight delivers his strike, cutting Sir Gawain slightly on the neck. He then tells Sir Gawain that he is the lord of the castle, acting on behalf of Morgan, the sister of King Arthur, and he has been impressed with Sir Gawain. Only one small fault had marred Sir Gawain's extraordinary chivalry: he had kept back the green girdle. Each blow had been a symbol of one of the days of the winnings game, and Sir Gawain only received any wound at all because of the girdle. The Green Knight, whose name is Sir Bertilak, doesn't blame him much for that -- he was, after all, facing likely death -- but Sir Gawain is devastated by his failure. When he returns to court, he manfully tells the truth about his failiure. The court is also not inclined to blame (and as Tolkien points out, there is no greater authority on chivalry than King Arthur's court), but it does not make Sir Gawain feel any better; he will always wear a green girdle as a sash, as a reminder of his failure. In response, the ladies and knights begin wearing green sashes in honor of Sir Gawain.
In some ways, this is a story of penitence. It is because Sir Gawain constantly examines himself and reminds himself of the ideal that he is the greatest exemplar of knighthood. His external temptations aim at what seem to be his strengths -- his courteousness, in particular -- turning them against him, but he manages to navigate the difficult situation. The temptation that actually wounds him is his fear of death, and even then it is an apparently slight failure -- indeed, as everyone else points out, it is nothing but a slight failure. But for Sir Gawain it is cowardice and discourtesy, and he is not wrong, either. He confesses his fault before the chivalrous court, and does satisfaction for it, by the green sash; but his fault repented is itself a badge of honor.
Tolkien also translates Pearl, which is one of the poems in the same manuscript that preserved Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The narrator has a vision or dream of a queenly and heavenly maiden across a river, who is repeatedly called a pearl. (Some have suggested that the infant's name was the very popular girl's name of Margaret, which means 'Pearl'.) As the poem goes on, we learn that the narrator knows the maiden, but that she had actually died before she was around two years old, and that she is related to him. While it's never strictly said, it is strongly implied that she is his dead infant daughter. The narrator struggles with understanding how an infant who knew neither Creed nor prayer could be made a queen in heaven. In this sense, the poem is about infant baptism, and is perhaps one of the greatest literary discussions of the subject. The dreamer eventually tries to cross the river to join the Pearl in the heavenly city, which he had been forbidden to do, and he awakes.
Sir Orfeo is a completely unconnected work by a completely different author, but it shares with Sir Gawain and Pearl the themes of death and of crossing a boundary into a strange realm; it is, of course, a medieval retelling of the Orpheus story, with Orpheus as a knight rescuing his kidnapped wife from the fairy king. Sir Orfeo, however, has a happier ending than the original Orpheus.
I read Sir Gawain in three versions -- the Armitage translation had both the Middle English and Simon Armitage's translation, and then I also read Tolkien's, of course. They were all quite good. I liked many of Tolkien's translation choices better as a narrative matter, but Armitage's translation mostly does very well at taking a story that uses a difficult set of poetic tools and providing a very readable translation that manages to use a lot of similar poetic tools. I also listened to Armitage's translation in audiobook, which was very nice, at least when I listened at 1.5x (as is sometimes common in audiobooks, the 1x speed is very, very slow; my brain cannot quite slow down that much).
Favorite Passage: My favorite passage has always been the passage in which Sir Gawain's symbol -- the Pentangle on his shield -- is explained. Here is part of it, in the original:
The fyft fyve that I finde tha tthe frek used
Was fraunchyse and felwschyp forbe al thyng;
His clannes and his cortaysye croked were never,
and pite, that passes alle poyntes -- thyse pure fyve
Were harder happed on that hathel then on any other. (p. 64)
In Armitage's translation:
The fifth set of five which I heard the knight followed
included friendship and fraternity with fellow men,
purity and politeness that impressed at all times,
and pity, which surpassed all pointedness. Five things
which meant more to Gawain than to most other men. (p. 65)
In Tolkien's translation:
The fifth five that was used, as I find, by this knight
was free-giving and friendliness first before all,
and chastity and chivalry ever changeless and straight,
and piety surpassing all points: these perfect five
were hasped upon him harder than on any man else. (p. 36)
Recommendation: The original and both translations are Highly Recommended.
****
Simon Armitage (tr.), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, W. W. Norton & Company (New York: 2007).
J. R. R. Tolkien (tr.), Sir Gawan and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo, Christopher Tolkien, ed., HarperCollins (London: 1975).
